The light in Draven’s raised hand did not strike.
It hesitated.
For a fraction of a second less than a breath the universe balanced on that pause. The Terminus surged forward, sensing the indecision, void stretching like a mouth about to close around its prey.
“Elara,” Draven said again, voice rough, breaking around her name. “Stay with me.”
Pain burned through her skull as the void clawed deeper, rummaging through memories that defined her first fear, first defiance, first love. Each one flickered like a candle threatened by wind. She could feel the bond trembling, stretched thin between them, glowing with desperate insistence.
“Don’t let go,” she begged. “If you sever it, the loop collapses. Everything we built”
“I know,” he said.
The Creator hovered closer now, urgency sharpening
